Is THE_KNOWLEDGE a mere member? Or could THE_KNOWLEDGE be more? Perhaps s/he's an aggregate of our collective consciousness. Perhaps s/he's the embodiment of Michigan Arrogance. But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

Happy to see 100 comments from people sharing information about head trauma or otherwise expressing concern for the kid. The two assholes who said screw him got insta-bans--anyone else who does so gets the same.

OT: MSU professor has nervous breakdown, strips naked and shouts obscenities at students

Come on people. I know it's Sparty, and we love to laugh at Sparty, but this is a guy having a mental breakdown. He's a non-combatant in the Big Brother/Little Brother Wars. I know what I'm asking is unlikely, but try to be human for two seconds.

in the thread I started tonight (OT: New songs for the MMB) -when I open the thread in my browswer (Chrome) I cannot see any of the replies the post has generated. I have tried rebooting my PC and clearing my browser history and cache of all stuff like cookies, and still it doesnt work. It does let me see the replies in the Droid app on my phone, but not in Chrome. I'm not sure why that happened or if there is anything you can do.

It might've occurred because I edited my initial comment on the post (I had panicked that the embed failed when it didnt, and then edited my comment on the post after realizing the embed had actually worked).

If this is something you guys can fix, awesome. Otherwise, I'll just have to deal with it, having broken the thread for my viewing somehow.

We ban people here for trolling and flaming so that the boards don't become conspiracy theorists and firebrand politicos calling each other Hitler, but not for simple bad taste. When deciding between the two I look for 1) intent, and 2) effect, set against our goal of allowing the broadest possible free speech. For intent, the user here wasn't trying to get people to start screaming at him about WTC humor, but making a suggestion about a well-known internet meme. For effect, it got a few downvotes and ticked one guy off enough to reply there and post it here. Eh.

Jokes that make fun of 9-11 victims etc. are in bad taste but WTC guy wasn't actually killed--he's a dude who photoshopped himself to look like a tourist standing on the roof when the plane was about to hit. The joke is about inappropriateness, and it's a well-hooved internet meme, albeit one I don't find particularly funny.

I don't like his post either, however not liking something is not enough reason to ban somebody.

I think you should have left it up. I know it's not OT season and all, but I never would have known this was happening if the OP hadn't posted it. Maybe that's on me for being out of touch, but I'm assuming there are others out there who would want to know about this (and would be interested in finding out when the re-launch will be).

Actually, I probably would have left it because, like you, I found it interesting. But I pulled it once I found out the attempt was postponed. If its up to me, I'll leave the thread up when the next try occurs in the future. But, technically, I think this is unlawful OT according to the MGoStrictures.

OT: "we ain't come here to play school" has moved to facebook

Someone help me keep an eye on this user: http://mgoblog.com/users/roman. He's been a member for 30 minutes as of this note and his first post was as off-topic as it gets.

[Dear Random Internet Guy/Gal: Please stop negging my posts in this moderator thread. Its silly and only makes it harder for people to see the reason why their post may have been pulled. Neg me in my regular Board entries if you want. If you don't like my moderating, contact Brian ([email protected]) and he will respond accordingly. #endofrant]

It seems the OP of this post - maizeandbluewolverine - has decided he would like it deleted http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/mods-please-delete-12 I didn't think his original topic was that bad, it could've been improved with some more research, but I guess he wants to just scrap it.

It was fun while it lasted. C'mon people - at least look at the front page of the Board before starting a thread on something that has already hit mainstream media. 9 times out of 10 whatever you are reading on sites like ESPN or Yahoo, etc. has already been posted/discussed on the Board.

Proposal: Posting a topic asking for a link to watch the game online results in a weekend trip to Bolivia.

Reason: Someone posts this every week, often we get multiple topics on this. Despite the fact that people provide links in the game threads, the live chats have the links, someone always posts instructions for using BTN streaming (if applicable), etc. We have no need for a bunch of threads whose title is basically "I've been a membere here for years, but somehow have failed to notice FirstRowSports/VIPBox which are linked to every week."

This is not a flea market. You can't use the Board to hock random things. The reasoning behind your sales is interesting and, yes, you mention the Red Wings but, c'mon man! No. NO! Now go to your room and think about what you've done.

So did I at one point. Good journalism program, and they planned a very nice, personalized visit with a big sister from my hopeful major in constant contact. I hated having to the tell them while I was being feted during the 1997 Michigan-Michigan State game that I'd gotten my Michigan acceptance (via CRISP lady) the prior Thursday and that meant adieu ol' MSU.

Crunchy's, the Dairy Store, Pokey Sticks...lots to love about East Lansing.

FWIW, the post in which "she" originally exposed herself was from the perspective of a Michigan fan so either it was actually a Buckeye troll that also has an account posing as a Michigan fan or "she" is an alt account for a regular user here that tried to save face by claiming to be a Buckeye troll.

Posted pictures of Denard has a sad and used this as his sole evidence for denigrating Denard's leadership and character.

Penalty box for a month for trying to use this site to give the world a case example for how arrogant and dickish a Michigan fan can be. Penalty would normally be an insta-ban but this was a longtime user with a good record and connections to good people we know who seems to have made just one terrible lapse in judgment. Goes on permanent record--next time it's a ban.

You guys may want to take a look at the comments being made by user "Terminate Carr". Notwithstanding his opinion of my avatar his "opinions" on the lives of the people impacted by Sandy are pretty insane.

Its titled "Garden Rewards & Game" - I put "READ THIS" in the title so people wouldn't miss it. Its great he posted and I wanted everyone to see it but I didn't think it would be viewed as much if it were in the Diaries (and its not technically Diary material).

Pretty lame move to lock that thread in my opinion. The guy posted a decently thought out post. There are legitimate reasons to consider Gardner a better qb and all locking the thread does is close off discussion. This site has a reputation for group think and this just backs it up.

But the thing is, that exact thread has existed many, many times. This one added literally nothing to that debate. He may as wekk just have said, "Devin vs. Denard: CONTINUE THE INTERNET WARS." It was a thread for the sake of a thread, and one that the OP KNOWS will cause a shitstorm. This particuar OP has caused problems in the past, and I didn't feel the need to indulge him.

Y U no read front page? In the future, you can assume that every transcript of every player/coach will be memorialized on the front pages of this here blog, especially those from post-game head coach pressers. (Did I really need to write this?)

The Force should only ever be used for knowledge and defence, never attack. A Jedi who uses the Force for his personal gain is slowly leaning towards the Dark Side. Using the Force when it is not needed to be used, or to gain wealth or fame - these lead to the Dark Side. Jedi seek to serve and protect, not to rule and terrorise.

that video went up a long time back, i saw it on the forums the first time when the event first happened. the only new info in that post was the article that said he was a cop and got in trouble for it.

Its all fun and games until you realize that there are real people on the other end of the internets, real people that have real lives in addition to their moderator duties, real lives that require lots of time, time that should not have to be spent removing silly threads, silly thread that are inappropriate material. Stop being so insensitive!

Other than the need of being at least a man short, you not only are around enough to know the flow and feel of what flies on the site (that all sounded very Dr. Seuss), you have an argumentative style that goes more on facts than anger that should help mediate issues. I never have really given much thought on who should be mods from the masses, but offhand I can't think of any or many that wold be better. Thanks for taking on a thankless job.

We'll see how it all goes, but hopefully I can help take some of the burden off profitgoblue and Zone Left and the staff. I figure I get way more out of this place than I put in, so I didn't want to say no to an opportunity to help.

There's essentially no burden on me since I've got about 10 minutes on the site per day outside of reading on my phone. Basically, I'm a mod past his prime and sticking around too long...I just delete threads when I'm able.

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia", but only slightly less well-known is this: never go up against trolls when death is on the line!!!

No, no, no. The startup wasn't even focused on doing some greater good in a community. MGoGoodwill is precious - more valuable than gold - and shalt not be exploited for personal gain without extremely good reason. This was not one. Consider this a warning. The next attempt like this by anyone will earn that OP a trip to Bolivian. In other words, attempt to spend MGoGoodwill carefully and wisely . . .

Dublin: Honestly the rest of Ireland is better. If you've got one full day and some pieces of days rent a car and do a day trip to something in the countryside.

Amsterdam: Red Light district late at night, Van Gogh museum and the area around it, try this food they serve that's raw hamburger on a bun with onions and and egg and some mustardy-mayo sauce on top. Take the boat tour. Sex museum. Get French food for breakfast.

Itay: Eat. If it's between rushing your meal and missing one of the sites, forget the site and eat. EAT MAN! You have the rest of your life to eat food that is not Italian. Did you know they won't let real Parmesan cheese leave Italy? You've been eating processed crap. Try real stuff. Have wine. Italian wine is not French wine; you don't need to know special vintages and whatnot because Italians think wine is for drinking.

The Vatican (they deport you if you make fun of their gestapo rules about who gets to go inside), and see if you can get on a speaking tour (or catch one up) when you do the ruins of the forum so you can see the greatest poltical drama ever reenacted on the spot it happened. The Collsseum definitely. The Pantheon definitely. Castel Sant'Angelo (Hadrian's Mausoleum). The Villa Borghese gardens.

Warning: most of Rome from Roman times is gone, or like they'll point to a pile of rocks and say "that's what's left of a 4th century emperor's palace that was built on top of the palace of any emperor you'd know." The Renaissance liked to idolize Ancient Rome but in the process it built all of that Romanesque stuff on top of the ruins. If you want to walk around a city that feels like the Roman Empire try Verona. Verona is a kick-ass day.

One idea that I had a while back was to go and re-read (or read for the first time) the classics. I found I liked books like Dracula and Count of Monte Cristo much more now that I'm older and can appreciate them more. Plus, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, and all those are always a good read.

Thanks but I've reread the classics enough times, that they are no longer classics in my eyes. Although it has been a long while since I've read The Catcher in the Rye, I guess that's where I'm going. Thanks and sorry for making you mod.

This has nothing to do with Michigan. Plus, its not funny. Plus, its quasi-racist. Plus, it appears to make fun of Chick-fil-A, which everyone knows is the best fast food restaurant around (in case you don't know, choose the #1 and ask for Chick-fil-A sauce). Sasha Cohen called and wants his act back.

OP was more closely related to the product than he led everyone to believe and was sent to Bolivia. DO NOT CREATE POSTS ASKING PEOPLE TO BUY YOUR STUFF. This is doubly true for a product that the NCAA could potentially consider a violation.

For future reference, if you have any advertising you would like to do through MGoBlog, leave a comment for Seth where he can see it (here is fine), or email Brian at [email protected].

News for obnoxious fans of all teams: Engaging in schadenfreude over the athletics troubles of your rivals is a perfectly enjoyable, reasonable passtime during the week.

Gleefully pointing out the errors of a select few former players and asserting that somehow the fact that they played at the school is what caused them to commit their illegal acts is classless and hypocritical. Unless you jump on Michigan's grave for guys like Rick Leach and Braylon Edwards. Guess what? Every school has guys who, over the course of decades, have played for their sports teams and gone on to embarrass themselves at later times.

Thanks Chop for the assist. I didn't see that thread but it was the homophobic slur that gave it away - if I recall correctly that is one of his calling cards.

FWIW it is funny though when you go on a rant like I did with someone and their comments get cratered. For all the world it looks like I'm yelling at they poster who said his name makes him break out in hives.....lol.

It's too hard to go around tracking IP addresses and stuff to make sure a banned poster stays banned. Even if someone identifies themselves, and they're not being a horse's ass now, I'll let it stay. I mean if the former troll is back and hiding by perfectly mimicking a kind, conscientious, intelligent and productive contributor then Mission. Fucking. Accomplished.

The flowchart for creating MGoContent (Octal9 put together an image) is stickied at the top of MGoBoard. Unfortunately, it no longer has an image, as far as I can tell, so the thread is basically pointless. If it's not possible to recover the flowchart itself, might I suggest un-stickying the thread to keep the top of the page cleaner?

Congrats on the addition to the family, but I think we've found the limit on how OT we'll go after Christmas. Because a) I had a second to do it and b) there were some cool responses, here's a screenshot of the first fifty comments. Hopefully that helps.

Within reason, I'm not going to try and decide which rape jokes were "harsh" or "mild", they're all unwelcome; using a lyric device to (loosly, granted) equate rape with a bowl game practice just isn't something I'm comfortable letting stand as is.

The best rule of thumb is to not make rape jokes at all. That's a pretty basic posting rule that's been enforced in the past, and that seems to be the reason they aren't seen often on MGoBlog.

Left it up for about an hour, got some seemingly good responses which can be seen by clicking here.

I also took a second to do some research, and maybe your buddy should try using the contact information from the Alumni Association- France. They also have a Facebook page that I'm sure could prove helpful.

This is very interesting. It looks like points were set to expire but instead 100,000,000 were awarded, and then taken away the next day, and then accidentally taken away again at the end of the year. In other words, there's an addition of 100,000,000 and then two subtractions of 100,000,000. I assume this is an accounting error but I'll leave it to Seth to sort out since I wasn't the mod that was involved.

I remember when they were sometimes when someone was awarded points temporarily that even after they were taken off when the 1 years expired they were taken off again. But I thought they had stopped expiring.

You broke MGoBlog. What seems to have happened is your initial sentence expired on the date it was supposed to, and took away 1 million points twice. I don't really want to pick through the database cause it's large and little things going wrong on export or import or me saving could make a hell of a mess, so if you suddenly dip a billion points again post here and we'll take care of it.

We're not going to have another opinion piece on the alleged criminal sexual actions of two ND football players on the board. This is doubly true with a politically minded site where the author goes into the pros of his position vs. campaign statements in Senatorial campaigns and compares the alleged crimes in South Bend with those in the Penn State athletic complexes.

I had absolutely no clue what I was reading, so I took it down. If someone can decipher the meaning of this OP, can you please let me know if this was the right or wrong decision, and what the post was asking or reporting? I'd honestly love to know.

benji wilson, force in highschool baskketball in the mid 80s...i apologize for the sporadic element to this post, but i have been very busy today and took the only 60 min of my day to watch the 30 for 30 on Benji Wilson...basically the best player in high-school in 1984, 5...died because he was sent to a hospital not equipped/motivated to treat him....(not diminishing the gang violence/stupidity that resulted in him getting shot)...feel for his mother, must watch...good kid and inspired a community around him....got to get this off my chest before i go to bed...go blue, beat ohio.....discusion please from anyone with a recolection

Today I saw the ESPN special on Benji Wilson. I was really moved by it. I was especially moved by the good he did in his community, the terrible gang violence that resulted in his fatal wounding, and the medical care disparity that was evident in that his local hospital was not equipped to treat what should've been a treatable wound.

I feel terribly for his mother, and the rest of his community. It's been sitting with me uneasily all day. Did any of you see the special and what are your feelings on it?

Thanks for the help, M-Dubb. That thread continued so late into the evening that I couldn't keep up with it. Some people have so much time, creating an account just to troll rival blogs. Trollers gonna troll, I guess.

Confession: I think I may have gone a little overboard in sending Chuckwoodson2 to Bolivia so dramatically. That said, I'm not going to tolerate bad-mouthing high school kids, including ones that choose Ohio over Michigan. Its classless and tacky, especially if the assertions are unfounded.

Seriously, to use an arbitrary "smell test" to prevent discussion of something that both seems at first read a substantial piece of investigative journalism and will dominate college football until signing day seems shortsighted at best. What's the harm in discussing it?

Particularly when an article is researched in such obvious detail. The "more credible outlets" PGB wants to hear from were the ones almost certainly printing nonsense about an imaginary person without looking into it further.

The further iteration of this point is that this blog was begun in large part because of rightful frustration with the shoddy job that the "mainstream media" (ack) did in covering Michigan football and college football more generally. Now, however, we need to wait for this story to be validated by those same institutions (and deadspin is arguably now part of the mainstream sports media) before it can be commented on?

The mind, it bottles.

As for the claim that people may say something stupid that they regret? Like that doesn't happen numerous times a day on this board, which seems to police such behavior pretty well.

Look, I take no offense to you all disagreeing with me. The story and its lack of real information doesn't sit right with me (they don't prove anything, they simple refute possible supporting information). But I happily throw myself at the feet of the all-powerful Brian and Seth and defer to their better judgment. I just didn't want crazy comments flying around only to find out the story is bogus. I made the judgment call and I will not be offended if they overrule me.

It may not seem so, but I appreciate all of these comments. I felt the story was shady but I quickly saw that I was the only one to react the same way. I'm glad you all called me out on it and took the time to read the story more closely after more information came out. I still don't really understand what the hell is going on and I obviously wasn't purposely trying to squash information/comments for no reason. I'm just glad that ND came out so quickly and responded so we can get on with the discussion - I was initially afraid that the story would sit there and we'd comment for days only to find out that it was all bullsh-t. But I definitely don't take offense to being called out on being wrong. I live and learn.

Crushing discussion of the Te'o story is utterly asinine. The fact that we allow 10,000 threads about Kate Upton, endless speculation on our very own players and commited athletes, but quash a link to a gigantic story at a website with a history of investigative pieces?

Former mod opinion: it's one thing to allow speculation about who's starting at the 3-tech or whether we should buckle up. It's an entirely different situation to allow speculation about potentially libelous, and somewhat unsubstantiated, claims about a playe perpetuating a hoax.

The same thing happens when someone starts a thread that says, "I heard from a reliable source that [Player X] has been accused of [Crime Y]." If it's substantiated, the worst that happens is that you have to wait a couple of hours to talk about something on the board, which is absolutely worth it when you look at what happens if a claim (however legitimate-looking) is false.

I actually appreciated the constructive criticism. I tend to err on the side of caution and hence you saw how I handled it. But there will always be someone to look at it differently and all I can say is that I take my marching orders from Brian and Seth. I lived and learned but if certain people think I'm asinine and don't like how I operate they can contact the higher-ups directly. Otherwise, I'll continue to do my best to protect the brand and probably make more mistakes along the way.

Some more constructive criticism, taken with a day to digest all of this: One thing you can do on a story like this (if there ever is one remotely this wild again) is check twitter for the immediate reaction of "respectable" sources. Twitter pretty much blew up when this came out, and some of this blowing up came from guys who write for espn.com and si.com, and they weren't questioning the story's accuracy, either. And, naturally, other bloggers whose opinions you respect will have takes on it. Personally, I found out from a quick retweet by @yostbuilt, but the second tweet (almost instantly) I saw about it was from a MSM political writer who was credibly flabbergasted.

I don't know how long it was "locked" be ause I learned about it when ESPN broke into PTI for it. So if that was already happening, maybe it was too slow to free it. But I don't know that it's really a mod's job to monitor all forms of media to see if a story has "legs" to it. No one is going to die for having to wait half an hour to discuss something. There are probably a thousand posts on it since. It got discussed when it showed merit. People getting bent out if shape by it have some entitlement thing going. I'd rather err on the side of class than expediency. It's like pay walled information. Maybe you have to wait ten minutes for it to be posted here, but you feel less dirty about it.

To go along with your comment and stephenrjking's, the most helpful thing anyone can do if we get a situation where we're trying to see if something is an actual story or not is to let us know about another outlet picking it up, or Brian mentioning it elsewhere or something along those lines. Whoever made the CBS Radio thread got the word out, but did it in a way that delayed any action we could take. Posting that information on the sticky is the best way to make sure we can take care of a similar situation.

When I got back to my computer after all of this was unfolding, I didn't go straight to the article to look for sources or to Twitter or ESPN; there was already a mini-firestorm here to deal with that took my immediate attention. With the four threads on the topic plus multiple comments in the sticky arguing against locking it, that took some time to sort through before getting in touch with profit and sorting out what we should do.

TL;DR: Posting straight facts on the sticky will get the outcome you desire more quickly than anything else. This isn't meant to discourage criticism, which profit and I are both fine with, but a lot of it before a decision is even final is more likely to delay a change than bring it about.

I know I was frustrated last night when posting about the search function (ALL CAPS), and I'd still love if people did their due diligence before posting, but the OP took the negs in stride and didn't get off work until 11:30.

Not so cool story bro: my first OP was a double post and got negged when it still counted. If I had to guess, TallyWolverine won't be making a double post any time soon.

You got that right!! I told myself there is no way this hasn't been a topic, but I didn't listen to my gut!! It was only my 3rd post in a year as a member, plus I missed all the advice to search the site. I was laughing, knowing the abuse forthcoming. Thanks for letting me do a faceplant gracefully as possible.

I missed the "pussy" and Scarlett Johansson comments. I don't like hearing "trash player", but that's not quite personal; the other stuff is obviously the textbook definition of going over that boundary.

I know a lot of people think banning takes too long at times, but it's not something I like to do as a first action. He's now gotten a warning and has been docked enough points to draw attention to one of the staff, ZL or profit if there is another post like that.

Either way, nobody will be seeing more than one stupid comment from his account again.

I put up an open thread for all things Te'o and cut and paste the content in this OP in that open thread so that it didn't get lost. Trying to keep the board clean as possible and limit the number of Te'o threads.

I've noticed that some users have levels higher than 2. For whatever reason on my account when I'm at 2, without being negged it will go back to 1. For example yesterday I was at 2 and my comment in the Bears thread was given a +1, today I am back to level 1. Just curious how everything worked.

but from my understanding it just calculates the number of upvotes or downvotes (or no-votes) you've received in the past x posts. If nobody voted on your last ten posts, you'd have a karma value of one; if all of your last ten posts are negative, you have 0 or -1, and if they're upvoted to certain levels you can get to 2, 3, 4, 5. I don't know what forumla Brian uses, and ten was just an example.

Thread was misleading. Kate doesn't do any washing of cars in the video, let alone wear a wet t-shirt or get all soapy. OP, do you work for Mercedes? If not, Y U no post more KUBEWBS in a thread like this??? /s (in case it wasn't clear)

I think the OP got his answers, or at least a little help. These kinds of topics are clearly out of bounds but during the offseason we generally try to leave the threads up for at least a little bit so that members can get some assistance. Its the MGoExperience!

I think the OP got his answers, or at least a little help. These kinds of topics are clearly out of bounds but during the offseason we generally try to leave the threads up for at least a little bit so that members can get some assistance. Its the MGoExperience!